"Every
genuine artistic intuition goes beyond what the senses perceive and reaching
beneath reality's surface, strives to interpret its hidden mystery. The
intuition itself springs from the depths of the human soul, where the
desire to give meaning to one's own life is joined by the fleeting vision
of beauty and of the mysterious unity of things. All artists experience
the unbridgeable gap which lies between the work of their hands, however
successful it may be, and the dazzling perfection of the beauty glimpsed
in the ardour of the creative moment: what they manage to express in their
painting, their sculpting, their creating is no more than a glimmer of
the splendour which flared for a moment before the eyes of their spirit."
- Pope John Paul II, Letter to Artists

John
Paul II'sbeautiful words
speak to a universal human experience we share in when we create. I do
not mention the word "Healing"
in my artist
statement, but the notion that art and creativity can be used in the
healing process is not a new idea. Certainly, there are many examples
where a passion for creativity has helped people face and persevere against
tremendous personal obstacles--especially in the arts and sciences. Stephen
Hawking the renowned physicist or the deceased artist Gay Lauritzen, two
highly creative people afflicted with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS),
Lou Gehrig's disease, both passionate about their work and life.

Since my
own diagnosis with Progressive-Relapsing Multiple Sclerosis (MS), the
freedom to express myself creatively through art has been physically beneficial
and psychologically therapeutic. How so? First, creating artwork (or simply
acting creatively) may not be a cure for Progressive-Relapsing MS, but
it is an example of both a physical and mental process which helps me
to maximize my own natural coping skills--while alleviating some of the
negative emotional stress caused by the progression of my disease, stress
which I believe increases symptoms and disability caused by my form of
MS.

Whether
a person suffers from a chronic illness like MS or not, we each do our
best to overcome unhealthy stress and we each adapt to change and adversity.
Our sense of self-worth is closely associated with our apparent ability
to control change within our lives. When negative changes take place and
are beyond our control (such is the case with MS), our need for control
escalates. In my own situation, my need for control has at times become
overwhelming. Practicing forms of relaxation that help me to let go of
that need (especially during times of heightened emotional stress) provides
me with a greater sense of perceived control over my illness, and may
actually affect the progression of my form of MS. Approximately 6-10%
of people with MS appear to have a form that is progressive from onset,
but also characterized by acute attacks--in my case attacks have always
correlated with periods of high emotional stress.

Regardless
of what type of MS a person has, some common emotional reactions are likely
to appear. A sense of disbelief, anger, depression, guilt, fear, a driving
desire to regain control over one's life--all of these negative feelings
contribute to an intense chronically active stress within the person.
Of course, stress is an entirely understandable response to MS (and chronic
illness in general). A diagnosis of MS implies a lifelong condition, progressive
physical disability, emotional conflict and lasting adjustments. Stress
is a normal reaction to MS and should be expected. Finding a positive
stress-relieving escape from the disease can be extremely helpful.

Physicians
claim that
about one half of all people who have MS experience a serious depression
during their illness. I have, of course, at times felt depressed about
my illness. Interestingly though, I have never felt compelled to go on
any form of antidepressant medication. I believe that I am blessed with
a naturally happy disposition, but that I have also maximized my natural
coping skills through productive positive thoughts that have inevitably
taken shape within my art and personal life. For example, who I associate
with and how they affect me emotionally has become an important consideration.
I simply refuse to be surrounded by negative people--and this includes
certain individuals within the medical community. I choose my physicians
and my friends very carefully. They have a powerful impact on the way
we feel about ourselves--rousing courage and hope, or fear and depression.

There are
a wide range of physical symptoms that may come and go over time with
MS. The disease causes damage within the central nervous system along
nerve pathways affecting movement, speech, vision, hearing, and bladder
& bowel control. What is not commonly recognized is that the disease
can also directly interfere with a person's ability to think clearly.
Damage within the brain can create changes that affect problem-solving,
attention, learning and memory. I believe that just as physical therapy
can help people with MS maintain as much physical ability as possible,
mental therapies that encourage problem-solving, attention, learning and
memory skills can help people with MS maintain as much cognitive ability
as possible. Strategies such as art therapy and other positive challenging
creative outlets may help improve or maintain partially impaired cognitive
pathways within the brain, and may enhance an individual's self-worth
and natural coping skills against depression and perhaps fatigue.

.

Picture
2: Memory
(broken
art)

"There
is no human being who does not carry a treasure in his soul,
a moment of insight, a memory of life, a dream of excellence,
a call to worship." - Abraham Heschel (1907 - 1972)

.

My paintings
are abstractions. I do not intend to paint representational images. From
time to time they may appear to be something recognizable, and then I
may give them the obvious or not so obvious name, but I never intend to
paint anything representational. All the same, because I do name my paintings
(other artists often leave their abstract art untitled), I do believe
that I eventually come to recognize after some reflection what my paintings
represent. The entire process of creating and then naming my paintings
provides me with a very satisfying physical, emotional, intellectual and
spiritual release. What's more, because I approach my artwork with no
expectations of good or bad, right or wrong, correct or incorrect, much
as a young child first approaches art, I experience very little of the
stress and anxiety that is often associated with the creative process.
What will people think of my creative work? A question that once caused
me anxiety (example my Ph.D defense), has become much less important in
view of my illness. I create artwork for my own enjoyment now, and to
my own personal satisfaction.

Why do
I invert the color of my paintings in my digital art? Well, the inverted
color spectrum is beautiful, revealing in that it uncovers hidden elements
within the paintings, and also emotionally soothing especially when placed
along side the original sister image. The inverted colors also serve to
remind me symbolically that scientists must ponder questions from opposing
points of view so that eventually we find the correct answers to difficult
problems. Below, the inverted image reveals itself to me as a solar eclipse
and so I named the painting "Moon."

.

Picture
3: Moon(original painting and sister
image)

-

"On
the day of the new moon, in the month of Hiyar, the Sun was put to shame,
and went down in the daytime, with the Venus star in attendance."
- Record of an eclipse on Sun 3 May 1375 B.C. discovered
in Mesopotamia. "I
see the moon, And the moon sees me; God bless the moon, And God bless
me." - Unknown

.

Viewed
together the original painting and sister image can be seen as equivalent
or contradictory, an analogy to the arts and sciences--and a metaphor
that conscious and unconscious elements within us affect health simultaneously
in both positive and negative directions.

You may
have noticed that I only work on square canvases. This is because while
I am painting I do not consider the final orientation of the work. I paint
freely and often turn and spin the canvas in different directions and
then again when I am interpreting the final abstraction. Only after I
have given the painting (and digital art) a name do they receive their
final correct orientation. I call the process "Wakeful Dreaming"
because much like the early Freudian and Jungian psychologists who first
attempted to understand their patients' dreams using various techniques,
I attempt to understand my paintings (and digital art) by giving them
each a specific name which usually comes to me upon reading a famous (or
not so famous) quotation, or idea. In this way the process of freely creating
abstract imagery that I reflect on and finally name embodies an ongoing
conversation that I have with myself. In practice, a dialogue between
my unconscious, dreamlike, symbolic mind (characterized by my artwork)
and my conscious, rational, literate mind (characterized by the quotations
I choose). Together, the quotations and artwork speak to me as both a
critic and a friend.

The last
step to my creative process is to break my artwork symbolically. I do
this by combining the original painting and sister image. I was diagnosed
with MS the week before finishing my Ph.D. in neuroscience. I remember
how I felt that week--shock, a sense of disbelief, as though a brick had
just shattered my newly completed stained-glass window. Unlike the original
paintings and sister images, my broken art stood alone without words when
first exhibited. Since that time, however, something internal has pushed
me to add a few words, a final thought. What would my Broken Art say if
it could speak? If I could just continue the two thoughts expressed within
each painting and sister image, what final thought might appear?

.

Picture
4: Moon
(broken art
derived from painting and sister image)

"Your
life and my life flow into each other as wave
flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy
and freedom for you, there can be no real peace
or joy or freedom for me. To see reality--not as we
expect it to be but as it is--is to see that unless
we live for each other and in and through each
other, we do not really live very satisfactorily;
that there can really be life only where there
really is, in just this sense, love."- Frederick Buechner (b. 1926)

.

People
with MS often feel as though they have let their family and close friends
down, and that they are somehow responsible for developing the disease.
Particularly vulnerable are young mothers (the group most commonly diagnosed
with MS) who often feel a tremendous sense of guilt for not being able
to carryout their usual work within the family. Although, I have no children
it is still mistakenly easy to feel a profound sense of culpability for
having MS.

My artwork
is about bringing unity to myself. It is about listening to instead of
shouting at reality. It is also about triggering my mind's unconscious
thought processes toward healing--by paying attention to and making sense
of the normally silent, repressed and often time distant elements within
myself. Because I am also trained as a neuroscientist and believe that
the mind plays a role in healing the body, I am approaching my art as
an experiment. It begs the question do we have more control over our health
than we appreciate? And if so, how might a person harness that control?
Perhaps, by letting go of control entirely--the paradox of combating chronic
stress and depression?

There are
presently thirty-four abstract (non-representation) paintings on BrokenArtGallery.com,
but I will discuss three briefly (with sister images) so that you might
better understand "Wakeful Dreaming" --my invented "Healing
Ritual" of unplanned creativity and imagination. Oftentimes, my analysis
is personal and would only have significance to me, but these three paintings
(and sister images) can be understood on several different levels.

.

Picture
5: Discovery
(original painting and sister
image)

-

"Discovery
consists in seeing what everyone else has seen, and thinking what no one
else has thought." - Albert Szent-Gyorgi (1893-1986)
1937 Nobel Laureate in Medicine;"Reasoning
is compared to understanding as movement is to rest…" -
Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274)

.

.1)
The painting "Discovery" is an abstraction that I created without
planned conscious symbolic intent (as are all my paintings), but in a
broad sense I now have come to understand the painting as the moment when
human life begins--the act of fertilization (egg and sperm), two genotypes
discovering one another and setting into motion the algorithm of a human
life. I decided to name the painting "Discovery" after a famous
quotation by Albert Szent-Gyorgi (1893-1986) who won the Nobel Prize in
Physiology and Medicine in 1937. My paintings are about ideas and questions,
not necessarily answers--how might the viewer interpret the painting "Discovery?"
Does it convey the importance of a scientific discovery--perhaps a cure
for the disease MS brought about by fetal stem cell research? Or, does
"Discovery" convey faith and the recognition of a human life
begun? My wakeful dreams allow me to communicate with another part of
myself, but I also hope that my finished paintings may make viewers think
about some of the same questions and ideas. The painting "Discovery"
causes me to think deeper on the question of stem cell research and ethical
concerns. Certainly, fetal stem cell research may benefit people with
MS tremendously, but it also raises ethical questions that we must confront
together as a society and as individuals. Regardless, stem cell research
is a very timely topic with regard to healing and one that I believe my
unconscious psyche has given some thought to.

.

Picture
6: Rainforest
(original painting and sister
image)

-

"The
point is that nobody knows. Things like the weather are so subtle, and
what effect the rainforest has- on any of that stuff - oxygen, all the
things that you hear about, the big scares - it's not known. But as long
as it's not known, it's not a good idea to rip them up and tear them down,
you know what I mean?" - Jerry Garcia (1942 - 1995);
"Late
have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved you!"
- Saint Augustine (354-430)

.

2) Once
again, created without planned intent, I interpret the painting "Rainforest"
as the global act of deforestation--the cutting, burning and irretrievable
extinction of our planet's most valuable and underappreciated resource,
biological diversity. We are losing medicinal plants, insects and other
species that may ultimately hold the cures for diseases like MS at an
unprecedented pace. As a scientist who is also afflicted with an incurable
disease, this issue is very close to me. I see the deforestation of the
world's rainforests (and loss of biological diversity) as the single most
important environmental issue of our time, and I feel symbolically linked
to global deforestation and the burning rainforests with every passing
day through the demyelination of nerve cells that is continuing unabated
within my own body--someone should listen. I named this painting "Rainforest"
after a relatively obscure quotation by Jerry Garcia (1942 - 1995) an
American Songwriter and Musician who formed the Grateful Dead band.

The final
selection of artwork is called "Escape."

.

Picture
7: Escape
(sister
image below / original painting far below)

"We
can escape the commonplace only by manipulating it, controlling it, thrusting
it into our dreams, or surrendering it to the free play of our subjectivity."
- Raoul Vaneigem (b. 1934- )

"One
of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from
everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the
fetters of one's own ever shifting desires." - Albert
Einstein (1879-1955)

.

3) I understand
the painting "Escape" as a conversation I continue to have with
the unconscious part of myself through wakeful dreams--it is about finding
an escape from the disease MS. Much like seeing the ocean and clouds from
a hijacked airplane, "Escape" addresses the questions that I
believe most people with MS ask themselves "How can I escape?"
"Why is my body attacking itself?" "Does some part of me
know the answer?" and "Can I regain control?" I named this
painting "Escape" after a quotation by Albert Einstein (1879-1955),
the renowned physicist and man of the 20th Century. In addition, each
separate painting within the three paneled "Escape" carries
it's own name from left to right "Dreams," "Report,"
"Disease" each taken from a separate quotation by Julie Cameron,
William Shakespeare, and Hilaire Belloc respectively.

Art can
be stimulating to both eye and mind, and can provide us with an opportunity
to heal ourselves and others. In a drawing Leonardo da Vinci executes
a masterful diagram with an engineer's precision of his legendary flying
machine. Unfortunately, many people with MS lose their ability to do the
very fine hand-eye coordination required in representational art and may
stop doing art in frustration, but abstract art does not place as high
a barrier to disabled people with limited hand-eye motor control and provides
the same therapeutic benefits. Leonardo da Vinci once referred to art
as being "the Queen of all sciences." --a Queen who offers not
simply an alternative approach to obtaining knowledge, but also a way
of sharing that knowledge with the world. Although MS has affected my
hands to some degree, I choose to do abstract art not because of my reduced
dexterity, but because abstraction is the only style of art that can be
executed without planned intent, and therefore a way for me to dream.

Join
the Quest good
Knights!

---

Impossibleis
possible.

Automated
Broken Art Show with
Audrey's narration.
Simply click
here& relax while the artwork slowly
changes for you.
The entire exhibition lasts about 90 minutes. We hope you enjoy.
Discovery Series began in Philadelphia & SOHO NYC in 2001.
Voyage Series began in Chania, Crete, Greece in 2002.
Both shows continue travelling to bring greater
public support to multiple sclerosis research.
Call 1-610-433-4156 to host a show.

---

Although
it is likely that a person with MS will have a bout of depression at some
point during their illness, a recent study has shown that most individuals
achieve a positive sense of self-worth that continues throughout life.
Even so, serious clinical depression is real, and can be a side effect
of some MS medications. Some studies have suggested that depression in
MS might be directly related to damage within certain parts of the brain.
Only a physician can assess serious (or clinical) depression and may recommend
antidepressant medication and/or psychotherapy. If a person with MS also
has a personal or family history of depression, they should consult with
their physician about an appropriate treatment. Creating artwork as a
form of self-hypnosis or psychotherapy may be an effective way of alleviating
certain types of depressive symptoms, but should only be explored under
the professional guidance of a trained therapist. Dr. Weber is a scientist,
not a therapist.

Today,
Brett tells friends that he's always trying to follow God's plan for his
life. He's still exploring three ideas that have helped him manage his
MS in a positive way since he was diagnosed in 1997-simply having faith,
staying creative, and finding true companionship with friends and helper
animals such as his German Shepherd Dog "Sophia." Sophia's autographed
(computerized paw-print) picture is now available (bottom of page), and
she usually allows Brett to sign too (upon request).

Brett
moved back to his childhood home in Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. several
years ago, and with the help of his family has converted his garage into
his "Broken Art Studio" where he works with other local
artists in town. "I'm blessed with a wonderful family and an exciting
group of friends. With regard to seeing the CURE for MS, anything is possible!"

Yes
Mathematicians,with
one flap
of its butterfly wings.Thanks for your flap!

---

Of
course, there is a theory in math called
the Butterfly
Effect.
It suggests that a butterfly flapping it's wings in some far off place
can cause a tornado or even a hurricane on the other side of the world.
If a butterfly can flap it's wings and cause a hurricane thousands of
miles away, what might you effect? Conservatively, more than you might
otherwise predict. Help us find the CURE
for MStoday
& every disease and disability on the face of the planet. After that,
visit the complexity
exihibit
hosted by the Exploratorium in San Francisco, CA USA and gain some complexity.Above is a fun
example of The Lorenz Chaos Butterfly. Click in the window (above) to
start a particle in motion around two strange attractors. Click again
near to where you clicked the first time. You should see a new particle
following the first very closely for a while, but as time goes on the
small difference between the paths of the particles increases until they
are following completely non-related paths. The Lorenz butterfly illustrates
the concept of "sensitive dependence upon initial conditions."
The small difference in initial conditions ultimately has a large impact
on the paths of each particle. The Lorenz butterfly may be used as an
analogy to multiple sclerosis. What makes multiple sclerosis, like the
weather, so difficult to predict? Help scientists find the answer to that
question. As the Lorenz Chaos Butterfly model suggests, small changes
may have enormous outcomes. Enjoy your visit.And,
thank you Dr. James P. Crutchfield for the use of your Applet.

Regardless,
TODAY Brett
accepts
the Pope& his
position on embryonic stem cell research, of coursewatching friends and himself become more
disabled
over timeobviously makes the Pope's policy increasingly
difficult to endorse.

---

Consider:
Embryonic Stem (ES) Cells can be obtained from
the early developing stages of an embryo as shown in the first figure
with a blastocyst. Stem cells obtained from this newly developed bundle
of cells have the full potential to differentiate into absolutely, positively
anything in the human body. Many scientists believe that embryonic stem
cell research could lead to therapies that have the potential to cure
at least 120 million Americans. They believe that these cells have the
potential to cure thousands of disorders and biomedical problems such
as Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, spinal cord injury, and organ
replacements. These are the types of stem cells that are under constant
controversy because they are taken from a five to six day old embryo .
President Bush has legalized approximately 60 genetically diverse stem
cell lines that can legally be used in research laboratories in the United
States. The constant struggle between science, the government, and religion
is at the pinnacle of this controversy.

Join
the Quest!Dr.
Brett Curtis Weber, Ph.D. is an artist and neuroscientist who lives
in Allentown, Pennsylvania and who is a member of the National
Arts Program and National Multiple Sclerosis Society. His work is
shown in galleries internationally, and can be seen on BrokenArtGallery.com
which hosts over
300 artists worldwide who support us in our fight against MS. Dr.
Weber has also been a member of the board of directors of the Da
Vinci Art Alliance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and works towards
expanding the creative and healing potential of all human beings through
art.